Found Art: St. Ives Wall Markings (June 17, 2010)

Throughout England I kept seeing these metal plates on the walls with an H and numbers. Sometimes they are brand new, sometimes apparently old, like this one in St. Ives. I don't know what they're for. I'll have to ask Jonathan. This one was particularly interesting against its brightly painted backdrop. Found art.

[Update: My English sources tell me the H stands for hydrant, the upper number for the diameter of the pipe in inches and the lower number for the distance, in meters, from the location of the plaque. This is necessary because the hydrants are buried and hidden behind a cover, unlike ours, which stick up from the ground, making them obvious without an indicator of any sort.]

On the road (Europe 2010): St. Ives, The Lizard, Cornwall

Spent most of yesterday in St. Ives. Visited the Barbara Hepworth Museum and the Leach Pottery, as well as many good galleries in the museum areas (as opposed to the tourist galleries down by the water). The Hepworth studio and home has been left almost exactly as it was when she died there in a fire (photo at left)--although there are no signs of fire anywhere. Had excellent ice cream at Willy Waller's Ice Cream, the best I've tasted so far in Cornwall.

Later in the day went to Kynance Cove--which is a beautiful inlet carved by the waves out of green and purple serpentine. I was hoping to see a chough--Cornwall's near-extinct cliff-dwelling bird--black with a distinctive red bill and red feet, but there were none to be seen. I had been told that this area (the whole peninsula is known as The Lizard for reasons I've yet to ascertain) was the one place in Cornwall that it might be possible. It was mostly jackdaws in the air and the ever-present herring gulls. The water was turquoise, the hills around the cove dotted with white and orange lichen-encrusted rocks.

Now in Lyme Regis for a day of fossil hunting.